Specific requirements for clean areas, for example, in food handling, biologically sensitive areas, or other such areas requiring a clean seal, requires use of a seal that can be cleaned easily, applied easily and become functional easily yet is also consistent in its sealing engagement to both the pipe and the wall, and that is manufactured from inert and chemically resistant materials, so as to not contaminate the immediate environment, and to withstand cleaning and the like. The same criteria apply when sealing a pipe to a further pipe that it may pass through. The further pipe may be an outer sleeve such as a kick pipe to prevent damage to the inner pipe. Such assemblies are often present where a pipe passes through a wall, floor or ceiling and the wall, floor or ceiling has an outer sleeve for the pipe to pass through.
There are numerous ways of sealing a cavity and join about pipes and similar elongate members to a flat surface which they may pass through. The most simple method for sealing a pipe to a wall is the application of sealant about the periphery of the pipe adjacent the region of the wall into or through which the pipe may pass through. Prior art methods that use sealants and similar are messy and time consuming and the sealant cannot be easily removed and replaced, meaning that the pipe, wall panel or similar cannot be easily removed and replaced.
Another example of these is the use of a stainless steel flange attached to the elongate pipe or member. This is then attached to the flat surface in a first method by standing this off the flat surface and then sealing the space with sealant. This is not an easily removable system. The second is the bolting of the flange to a further wall fitting and locating between the two a sealing component, e.g. an “O” ring. This method and the previous one do not stand up well to vibration and flexure of the pipe relative to the flat surface.
Further methods utilize boots and similar to engage both the pipe and wall. Other methods use a boot with a cut to allow it to be placed and seal an existing pipe and wall installation. Methods that have used boots to date have not resulted in a consistently sealing boot about the pipe and against the bulk head. The solutions that currently exist with a sealable cut for sealing about an existing pipe and wall share the same problems as the uncut ones together with the added problem that the cut does not seal consistently either. To date all re-sealable glands require the addition of sealant to obtain an effective seal.
A number of solutions exist for sealing a pipe to a protective sleeve. However all of these require some form of additional sealant added to affect a proper seal between the pipe and the protective sleeve.
Increasingly hygienic environments, for example food handling and preparation premises, require high standard chemically inert materials to be present. This is not only to preserve the hygienic environment but also the method of cleaning such places uses highly corrosive clean in place chemicals that attack most materials such as rubbers and steels, including 305 stainless steel. These chemicals or environments are also often thermally elevated, increasing their reactivity. Such environments require materials that are compatible with such harsh environments.
Additionally such environments require a vibration and flexure resistant sealing and often fire retardance and resistance. Such relative movement can occur due to impact of the pipe or surface, flow in the elongate member, water or gas hammer or thermal expansion. The relative movement can be both radially and axially of the elongate member. To date, no such gland exists that offers all these properties and there is a long felt want in the industry that as yet has not been addressed.
In this specification, where reference has been made to patent specifications, other external documents, or other sources of information, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the invention. Unless specifically stated otherwise, reference to such external documents is not to be construed as an admission that such documents, or such sources of information, in any jurisdiction, are prior art, or form part of the common general knowledge in the art. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a sealing gland to overcome the above problems with the prior art or at least to provide the public with a choice.